Air Force One (1997)

Hijackers seize the plane carrying the President of the United States and his family, but he - an ex-soldier - works from hiding to defeat them. Air Force One has one of the greatest castings for a President that i have ever seen in my life Harrison Ford completely nailed it also Gary Oldman is always great in whatever he is int and in this film he is no exception. Also that iconic line? "GET OFF MY PLANE" it's just hilarious in a really great way. The action is great, the suspense during the ending where they try to land the plane hits the floor and as for flaws? Well there's one particular scene where the plane gets crashed and it looked so fake almost like a bad video-game cut scene but other than that this is a spectacular action film and sh*t hits the roof in every scene.

"Air Force One" comes packed with some considerable talent; not just the leads, but a wide array of well qualified supporting actors (and Jerry Goldsmith for good measure). That all of this talent is nearly blown on a story riddled with clichés is more than a little disappointing. This is a stock mid-'90s "Die Hard" clone (I mean, it's almost note-for-note), and it speaks volumes that Gary Oldman is wasted on an ill-defined character.But it's no secret that the movie's selling point is Harrison Ford kicking ass and turning the tables on the bad guys. And why wouldn't it be? Ford's got the believable ruggedness and it's always cool to see a take-charge commander-in-chief on the big screen. If this movie works, it's because of some of the action (the initial siege is pretty gripping) and because of its star. And some good flag-waving patriotism fits right in here, but as a whole, the movie also has a knack for overstaying its welcome. 6/10

Air Force One is not a good film. It is just an alright film. The things that were not good about Air Force One is that the special effects looked horrible, unconvincing, unbelievable and looked like they did not even belong to the picture in the first place. I felt sick looking at them. The movie also lacked in breathlessness and in being spectacular and had a poor filmmaking quality feel to it. However, the movie was arguably redeemed by impressive performances from Ford, Oldman and Close, a strong emotional side to it and a flawless, sharp direction from Wolfgang Petersen. Moreover, Gary Oldman was an attractive and cold villain and by his behavior and actions managed to make me feel cold and feel hatred toward him. Well done on all of that. My rating: 6.2/10

"Air Force One" is among the best and one of my favorite action-thriller films. Harrison Ford fits to a tee the image of a modern-day Errol Flynn. Of course the plots for these types of terrorist-criminal-action films are quite far-fetched. So to make them at all believable, the script writers have to find ingenious ways that such capers might be pulled off. And that makes for a lot of mystery and fun entertainment in the movie. The plot and script for this film are excellent, and all the cast play their roles very well. The cinematography, CGI and special effects are tops. "Jurassic Park" was the first film to gross more than $1 billion worldwide in 1993, and "Titanic" in 1997 was the first film to gross more than $2 billion in worldwide box office receipts. Only four other films that year grossed more $300 million, and "Air Force One" came in fifth at just over $300 million. I don't know if it was intended or not, but one aspect of the film clearly harkened back to a recent global event that was the shame of world leaders, including the U.S. and United Nations. This was a poignant scene in this film. Ford, as U.S. President James Marshall, attends a celebration banquet in Moscow. It is honoring him for his efforts to capture a former Soviet general who was now a tyrant dictator of a former satellite country, Kazakhstan. General Alexander Radek was a threat to freedom and world peace. Ford said he visited refugee camps that day, and he departed from his prepared speech. "We were too late," he said. "The Radek regime murdered over 200,000 men, women and children as we watched it on TV. We let it happen. People were being slaughtered for a year. We issued economic sanctions and hid behind the rhetoric of diplomacy. How dare we! The dead remember. Real peace is not just the absence of conflict, it's the presence of justice. Tonight I come to you with a pledge to change America's policy. Never again will I allow our political self- interest to deter us from doing what we know to be morally right."The description in this scene had an uncanny resemblance to an actual event just three years earlier. The Rwanda genocide took place in 1994. Some 800,000 men, women and children were slaughtered by a majority ethnic group in that nation while the U.S. and United Nations looked on. The movie, "Hotel Rwanda" in 2004 is about that genocide. It portrays UN peace-keeping troops who are standing by as the carnage takes place in front of them. They were not permitted to use force to stop the killing. In one poignant scene in that film, we hear a radio broadcast in the background with U.S. President Bill Clinton talking about diplomatic efforts to try to stop the genocide. But the killing continued for nearly three months. The White House had known about the uprising before it started, but kept quiet about it to justify its inaction. Clinton later said that the failure of the U.S. to intervene in the genocide was one of his main foreign policy failures. In 2000, the UN explicitly stated that its reaction to the situation in Rwanda was a failure. Former UN secretary general Kofi Annan said "The international community failed Rwanda and that must leave us always with a sense of bitter regret."One must wonder about the state of terrorist activities in the world today. Will force be necessary to stop the killing and carnage? Will the U.S. president and other world leaders have the gumption to use force to stop the tyranny, to save thousands of lives, and to protect innocent people? As a world super power, does the U.S. have a moral duty to help protect our brother human beings in the Middle East, Asia, Africa and elsewhere? Today, whole cultures and ethnic groups are under attack and being killed in several nations around the world. But, so far, there seems to be little humanitarian interest among world leaders to use force if necessary to stop the carnage. So, we impose economic sanctions, and use diplomatic gestures while thousands of innocent children, women and men are being murdered or driven from their homes. Ford's talk in "Air Force One" was an inspiring moment that would make any American and most other people proud of being human. I'm glad that Hollywood at times can come up with social dialog that's so fitting for our times. It's too bad when the film industry sees the reality of the world, but our political leaders don't – or they don't have the courage and strength to act for the protection of the innocent. Will we learn from our past or not?